Casino losers rob banks

Monday, July 15, 2002 Detroit News

Gamblers with no past criminal records cross line to pay off debts, police say

By David Shepardson / The Detroit News

You can reach David Shepardson at (313) 222-2028 or dshepardson@detnews.com.

 

   BROWNSTOWN TOWNSHIP -- Leslie C. Washington, a 27-year-old elementary school teacher from suburban Cleveland, is not a typical bank robber.

   After racking up large losses while gambling at Detroit casinos with a man she met there, the teacher declared bankruptcy. Then, she took a more extreme and fateful step, she admitted.

   Washington bought a $30 gun and masks like those from the movie "Scream." She went with her boyfriend and another man to the Key Bank on Telegraph Road in Brownstown Township last summer.

   The trio was nabbed by police with $11,151 from the bank after Washington, driving a Ford Explorer, led officers on a 15-mile chase that topped 110 mph.

   The young educator is among a growing number of criminals goaded into theft by casino-gambling losses, authorities say. At least five people in Michigan have robbed banks in the past year to settle casino gambling debts, the FBI reports. At the same time, overall bank robberies in Michigan dropped by 25 percent in the first half of 2002.

   "We have seen an increase in the number of people who are robbing banks to pay gambling debts at the casinos," said Special Agent Terry Booth in Detroit. The total may be higher, he added, because the bureau doesn't always determine the motive for bank heists.

   Heavy gamblers who get in over their heads often borrow from credit cards, banks or directly from casinos, or they turn to loan sharks. Sinking in debt, the losing bettors often take a dramatic turn, law enforcement officials say. Most have no prior criminal records.

   In Michigan, defendants over the past year have included a Livonia store employee, a Saginaw electrical engineer and even a Greektown Casino dealer.

   Desperation allegedly took them into bank teller lines in Southgate, Dearborn and elsewhere with demands for cash.

   It's a dark side behind the casino glow that was seen in Las Vegas and other cities before Detroit's three gambling halls opened in 1999.

   Rob Hunter, a counselor who works with compulsive gamblers, said he isn't surprised that some resort to embezzlement, robbery or other thefts. For years, he ran a gambling addiction center in Las Vegas that was the nation's largest.

   He has seen doctors and lawyers turn to crime to support gambling habits.

   "In their mind, it's not so much a crime as it is a short-term loan," Hunter said. "It's always just to break even. They're always going to put it back the next day. It's not a typical criminal mind-set."

   

Crime follows casinos

   A seven-city research project by University of Nevada-Reno, which didn't include Detroit, found that each city had sharp increases in theft, domestic abuse and drug crimes after the opening of casinos. The cities also had an increase in personal bankruptcies and suicides.

   "The vast majority of people who gamble do not have a problem," Hunter said. "But for the 5 percent who do, there is a very real social cost."

   A separate study by University of Illinois economist Earl Grinols suggests that higher crime rates begin to appear three years after casinos open, perhaps because it takes chronic gamblers that long to exhaust their resources. Casinos opened in Detroit three years ago.

   "After four or five years, you can assert that about 8 percent of the crime a city has is because of the casinos," Grinols said.

   Detroit casinos had revenue of about $1 billion in 2001, up from $743 million in 2000. The three temporary casinos took in $95.3 million in revenues in May, their fifth consecutive month of year-to-year gains. The city of Detroit expects to receive $105 million in casino taxes this year.

   The industry is sensitive to the image-tarnishing crimes, and it posts referral numbers for Gamblers Anonymous and warnings to bet prudently.

   "We have 15,000 people come here a day, and the other two casinos have at least as many as we do," said Greektown Casino spokesman Roger Martin. "The number who commit crimes is infinitesimally small."

   

Motive: gambling losses

   FBI records and court documents for the handful of cases over the last year sketch a picture of casino betting that led to a downward spiral.

   Samson Gemechu, a dealer at Greektown Casino, was charged with robbing two banks in Dearborn last September and in February, getting away with $8,055 after giving tellers notes that said he was armed with a gun and a grenade.

   "We believe the motive was he was trying to make up gambling losses," FBI Special Agent Hank Glaspie said.

   Gemechu, who turns 39 next week, also is charged with robbing two banks in New Orleans during the last three months of 2000, a year after he got a Louisiana gaming license. The suspect in those heists matched his description and used notes mentioning grenades. He is in New Orleans awaiting trial.

   In May, Richard Kozlow, 58, of Saginaw pleaded guilty to robbing 11 banks in 10 states, including one in Michigan, in a string of what federal authorities believe were crimes motivated by gambling. His first robbery was at a Citizens Bank in Saginaw, where he got away with $12,806.

   Kozlow, who has a degree in electrical engineering, was arrested Nov. 11 on a gambling boat in East Peoria, Ill., after employees asked for identification when he claimed a jackpot.

   He faces up to life in prison at a sentencing hearing on Aug. 12, said Jan Sparks, an assistant U.S. attorney who heads the Nebraska office's criminal division.

   

Feeding a habit

   Across the nation, people have been arrested for casino-related robberies.

   In March, 48-year-old Rita Radcliffe of Portland, Maine, was sentenced to 15 months in jail after she pleaded guilty to robbing a bank of $1,872 to gamble at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.

   Robert S. Kennedy, 24, is serving a life sentence after he robbed a Riverside, Calif., bank of $7,039 and then was caught in Las Vegas feeding the bills, which had been covered in red dye from an anti-theft device, into a slot machine.

   In Michigan, Kimberly Ann Carter admitted robbing banks in Southgate and Taylor in 2000 before going to MotorCity Casino. She pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing.

   In the case of Leslie Washington, the teacher from suburban Cleveland, she pleaded guilty to bank robbery and was sentenced May 2 to 10 years and four months in prison.

   Washington, who lived in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, met Ronald H. Long Jr., 24, at one of Detroit's casinos and they began dating. They then decided to rob the bank to pay for Washington's high gambling losses.

   The admission came after the third man in the car, William Monk, 25, who worked at a Livonia warehouse, confessed to the July 12, 2001, robbery and offered to testify against Washington and Long in exchange for leniency.

   "She was literally caught red-handed," said Assistant U.S. attorney Dan Lemish in a filing. Washington was stained with dye from a hidden anti-theft device that exploded in the vehicle, he said.

   They were caught with the masks, gun, a bandana and stolen money when forced to stop in Inkster by Brownstown Township and Taylor police.

   The FBI's Terry Booth said the bureau is investigating whether Washington is responsible for two other bank robberies near Akron, Ohio.

   "She obviously doesn't fit the profile of a bank robber -- a sad story," Booth said.

 Back to Editorials/Articles